A Study of the Development of Generative Grammar from the Perspective of Changes in the Movement Pattern

Movement plays an important role in generative grammar. This paper expounds characteristics and motivation of the development of generative grammar theory by analyzing and contrasting the movement pattern in different periods of generative grammar. From Move- ∝  to the feature checking, and then to the matching of the probe and the target under agreement feature, a series of changes in movement pattern indicate that generative grammar is exploring the principled interpretation of the language from the perspective of biolinguistics, the explanation of the characteristics and general principles of the interface system, ultimately to the goal of going beyond the explanatory adequacy.